I’m still using a stock template here on WordPress, so the formatting of some of the pages is pretty wonky – but 96.4% of the content from lightfool.com is now here. At the moment it’s also at lightfool.com, which is enjoying free (and therefore not entirely reliable) hosting. Sooooo, at some point I’ll probably customize the formatting here and forget about hosting elsewhere – but at the moment you have two choices to access the same stuff.

Yay for choice!

Please continue to comment and email – let me know what you want to see added/updated.

[update: Free hosting is free… for a while. Until bandwidth is exceeded – which we did. So, on the upside, I guess that means people are actually using the site, or were until it died again. I will revive it again somewhere more reliable shortly. Thanks for your patience! In the mean time, it probably works at the link above.]

Here’s the usual site. I just popped it up from a backup, I haven’t actually checked it to make sure it’s all ok yet. And the hosting is a little odd at the moment, but it’s up!

My webhosting costs went up and I’m going to move the site – but I’m too busy with new baby at the moment to do it now.

I will probably add the link pages here (at least temporarily) sometime in the near future. Maybe this will be the new home? Who knows. Maybe that will encourage me to post a bit more!

My guess is that you can now find any site you’re looking for via Google, which was clearly not the case in 2000 when I first put lightfool up. But if you’re looking for something and you can’t find it, comment and I’ll try to help.

Yes it appears someone has patented a lamp in a vegetable steamer, stuck to a monitor mount. Check it the actual patent here.

I recognize that ornate key from somewhere – an antique boudoir lamp? Ancient turn-y door ringer? An old skeleton key? I am all for making things out of bits that were never meant for whatever you’re trying to do, and showing them to the world. They just look funny in such an official setting. I love that even the technical drawings are artfully faithful to whatever was lying around in the kitchen when these guys mocked this up.

If you have any interest in industry-related patents, visit Mike Wood’s site and sign up for his patent subscription service. You’ll be rewarded with occasional emails filled with mostly interesting patents – and sometimes gems like this.

Something I hope you haven’t had to learn the hard way: Cardboard gelframes and heatshield can make for a nasty BBQ.

It’s a common situation. You’re using Source 4 Pars for backlight. Add scrollers, and you’ve got a lot of light in a bunch of colors. Punch up the output with a 750W lamp. Excellent. You don’t want those expensive gelstrings to fade, so you add heatshield – let’s say Rosco 1991. All good, until you choose cardboard frames.

I worked a gig the other day as an electrician. I spend a little too much time at a desk these days, so I make it a point to pick up a wrench when I can. I’ve worked with this head electrician on and off for years, the site and event type were not unfamiliar, and the other electricians had worked together (and for this head) many times before. There were hanging tapes, the cable and units were prepped – everything was pretty easy. That left room for all the nit-picky questions: Continue reading ‘What’s left unsaid’

If you enjoyed Doug Fleenor’s Home Moves vol 1, you’ll like his new video on DMX cable – and learn something in the process. Includes DMX cable vs Mic cable vs AES/EBU (“makes an excellent DMX cable”), as well as impedance, capacitance, and 1-pair vs 2-pair issues.

It’s a lot of good information, brought together by a guy who knows his DMX.